AND QUIET FLOWS THE GOMTI
Qurratulain Hyder’s last novel takes in the rapid changes that have impacted India
Chandni Begum was Qurratulain Hyder’s last novel. Written in 1989, almost two decades before her demise, it centres around the lives of two aristocratic families living across the Gomti river in Lucknow and a controversial estate with a mosque and a temple in its compound. As the story unfolds over a period of four decades and across generations, we find her holding forth on an issue closest to her heart – a society without caste or class divisions.
Given Hyder’s prowess for knitting and knotting plots, it comes as no surprise that the eponymous Chandni Begum plays only a small part. The novel featuring the three women mentioned on the flap of the book jacket, including Chandni Begum, whom the reader subconsciously expects to have a lavish love affair with Qambar Ali, the romantic revolutionary, ends in a beautiful anti-climax. However, this is rather expected of Hyder, whose writings jump conventional genres.
The story moves at a fierce pace, shuffling between the past and the present – from the Partition of India to the MandirMasjid dispute in Ayodhya -- showcasing the complexities of life, trying to find coherence in the class-caste chaos, yet never bereft of the trademark Hyder wit.
Red Rose is home to Shaikh Azhar Ali, a renowned barrister and his social reformer wife Badrunnisa Azhar Ali aka Bitto Baji. Qambar is their only child, who revolts against capitalism, and launches a socialist magazine, Red Rose. He alarms his parents by refusing to marry the classy Safia Sultan. During childhood Qambar was engaged to Safia Sultan aka Fenny, who belongs to the aristocratic family that lives across the Gomti river in Teen Katori House, home to Anwar Hussain, the raja of a small principality. Qambar tells his mother he wants to marry an educated girl from the working class. His mother chooses Chandni Begum. However, when Bela, the Panchgani-educated daughter of a “mirasi-bhand couple” comes along, he marries her. And thereon begin his own string of troubles. Across the Gomti river, following Qambar’s rejection, Safia Sultan rejects proposals that come her way. To take her mind off the activities at Red Rose, she decides to open a “convent school” and names it St Sophia. When the highly-educated Chandni Begum shows up at Red Rose to seek Qambar’s help, Bela suggests she teach at St Sophia’s and dumps her at Teen Katori House. There is no vacancy in St Sophia’s, so Chandni Begum ends up sewing clothes and living in the servants area. Years later, Red Rose House is a disputed estate. There are fights over what came up first there - the mosque or the temple. Hyder wrote this tale of love and loss, of people and land, a few years before the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground in Ayodhya in 1992, almost predicting the future course of events, of an India that would become increasingly intolerant.
Translations are never an easy task, but Saleem Kidwai has done justice here. Hyder’s intricately crafted story isn’t a breezy read. This book needs several sittings to understand the rapid socio-cultural changes that have impacted India. It’s wise to see the world from Hyder’s eyes. A couple of evenings – is all it takes.